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It cost around £6,840,000 in today's money to construct and for more than a century it did what all lighthouses do - protecting ships from the rocky shore.

Incredibly it did this with 24 candles to start with, until oil lamps replaced them and then lenses in 1845.

It wasn't the first lighthouse to stand guard on the spot by any means. Winstanley’s Light was first from 1698 to 1703.

Henry Winstanley built the first ever Eddystone lighthouse. He was a trained engraver and mechanical inventor who managed to attract the attention of the King and Sir Christopher Wren after he was appointed as the Clerk of Works at the Royal properties at Audley End and Newmarket.

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The progression of technology meant that construction of the lighthouse was finally technically possible and Winstanley was the man for the job.

He started work in 1696 and two years layer it was first lit – the very first offshore light to be built in the world. It was a much more decorative affair than any future versions, topped with a weather vane and with large ladders on its exterior.

It even boasted a 'state room', carvings, paintings and decorative ironwork.

A year later, Winstanley reinforced his creation, but in 1703 a great storm swept it into the sea. Sadly Winstanley and the five lighthouse keepers were killed in the tragedy. No trace was ever found of them.

It would be five years before another lighthouse replaced it - Rudyerd’s Light which ran from 1708 to 1755.

John Rudyerd was a London-based silk merchant and furrier and was tasked with building the second Eddystone Lighthouse.

Rudyerd took his inspiration from shipbuilding and created a tower of oak, granite and iron and coated in pitch like a ship's hull.

Rudyerd's lasted a little longer than its predecessor by some 42 years, but it too met a horrible fate when a lantern set it alight in 1755 destroying the entire lighthouse completely.

Lighthouse keeper Henry Hall swallowed a seven-ounce lump of molten metal while attempting to fight the fire and died six days later aged 94. There is a small plaque dedicated to him which is said to lie between the Duke of Cornwall Hotel and Plymouth Pavilions.

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Meanwhile Smeaton's Tower has gone through several different make-overs in its time on the Hoe; from red and white, to green and white (the colours of Devon) and back to its traditional candy stripe pattern.

These days it's a tourist attraction and even a wedding venue. But next time you pass it by, just cast your eyes out to shore and remember where our lighthouse came from.